


Serenity

by smolassassinchildx (smolassassinchild)



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003), Firefly
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Community: Pilots Presents, F/M, Flashbacks, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-27
Updated: 2012-04-27
Packaged: 2017-11-04 09:44:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/392450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smolassassinchild/pseuds/smolassassinchildx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Six years have passed since the end of the Unification War and those who fought in it struggle to find their way through the world. Whether it’s uniting with fellow soldiers, or trying to forget the past, the former Browncoats all have their own ways of dealing. Which work just fine until a chance encounter forces back old memories and old alliances.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Serenity

Kara blinks at the line of shot glasses in front of her, counting. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. A respectable number but she’s damned sure she had eight when she started. It’s a definite possibility that she’s drunk it already but that doesn’t explain the gorram glass going missing.   
  
Her bar stool wobbles precariously as she leans over to search the grimy floor, and Kara slaps a hand on the scarred wooden bar for balance.    
  
“Lose your lunch down there, Captain?”    
  
Kara bolts upright so fast she smacks her head against the counter. She sees stars, but figures it would hurt a lot more if she were sober, and briefly congratulates herself. Blinking hard, a person-shaped shadow on the stool next to her slowly comes into focus. Malcolm Reynolds. “Hey, Sarge,” she drawls with a lazy salute.    
  
“Shiny place you’ve found here,” he says, looking around and rubbing his hands together. “Don’t suppose you’ve got a recommendation for someone just breezin’ through.”    
  
Kara shrugs. “It’s all shit.” She twists on the stool, leaning back and setting her elbows on the bar behind her. So, to what honor do owe… to what do I owe the honor of this into… introdu…” she pauses, frustrated, “’the hell are you doing here?”    
  
“Lookin’ to get a good drink and some pleasant conversation. Lookin’ like I’m gonna need to settle.”    
  
Kara’s stomach lurches and realizes Mal might have just been early with the lost lunch comment.    
  
“This a routine for you these days?” Mal turns to the bartender. “I’ll take half of whatever she had.”    
  
The bartender sets four shot glasses down in front of Mal, and he picks one up, examining the contents with a sneer. “My gut’s rottin’ just lookin’ at this.”    
  
“That would be the point.” Kara feels a flicker of irritation in her gut. Not that she has anything against Reynolds. Good man. Good leader. She might just owe him her life, but that’s no reason for him to be waltzing back into it now, almost a full year later.    
  
Mal throws his head back as he downs the shot. He grimaces and coughs. “Damn shame.”    
  
Kara wonders briefly if she has the coordination to punch him in the face, but decides she’d rather keep what dignity she can muster. “Shame?” she echoes. “Can’t imagine you got a lot going for you, Mal. How many other Independents you track down for a ‘good drink and pleasant conversation’?”   
  
“Only ones I got a proposition for.” Mal’s words are sharper than she expected them to be and Kara sits up a bit straighter. “But I ain’t got no room for a drunk in this deal. Get home and sober on up, find me tomorrow.” He pushes himself off his stool and turns for the door. “And drink some gorram water.”    
  
Kara is sober, but the way her head is throbbing makes her wish otherwise when she meets up with Mal the next day, Zoë at his side, just like always. Turn’s out Mal’s “proposition” just might be the prettiest damn thing she’s seen in years.    
  
“You sure that’s not the hangover talking?” Zoë asks her, but Kara knows that this is exactly what she needs.    
  
_Serenity_ .    
  
==========   
  
_Heat.  
  
Before Lee even opened his eyes, he could feel flames too close to his skin, smoke too deep in his lungs. He tried to move away, but his limbs protested, pain blooming along his side as he tried; confirming that he wasn’t dead.  
  
At least not yet.   
  
The heat licked closer to him. Where was he again?  
  
Two hands closed around his wrists and pulled, dragging him along the hard ground for some time before it finally stopped. The cacophony around him faded to a din from which he could pick out the sound of someone calling his name.   
  
“Apollo. —Apollo. _ Lao tian bu. _Lee. Can you hear me?”  
  
Lee forced his eyes open enough to see Kara leaning over him. A streak of blood ran from her eyebrow to her chin. Lee didn’t have to fight the completely insane urge to reach up and wipe it away—he wasn’t able to move his arm, at all.   
  
He tried to say her name, but came up coughing instead. She held onto him, steadied him, even as she cursed under her breath. “Kara?” he managed, gulping in air. “What happened?”  
  
Kara craned her head, looking around the rock outcropping they were huddled behind. She scowled as she turned back to him, angry, but he could see sorrow there too. That happened when you fought side by side with someone for as long as they had. “Gorram Alliance anti-aircraft artillery.”   
  
The memories came rushing back. Arriving at Serenity Valley, air support to back up the ground troops that had been there for weeks. Eighteen other squadrons had been taken out by the Alliance. He could still hear the alarm, alerting him to the incoming missile before everything went dark.   
  
_ “Qing wa cao de liumang,” _Lee muttered, pulling himself up to lean against the rocks, trying his best to ignore the sting of singed skin along his side and what was likely a couple of broken bones. “What’re our losses?”  
  
Silence answered him.  
  
They were truly humped. “Right. Just us, then?” he asked.  
  
“Just us.” _   
  
==========   
  
As far as Kara’s concerned, once the spacebus—Mal hates it when she calls it that—touches down planetside, she’s off the clock. Until this potential job Mal keeps hinting at becomes a reality, anyway. “Ladies and gentlemen, this stop, New Canaan. Next stop, hell if I know.” She leaves the bridge and ducks into her bunk, changing into sweats and sneakers.    
  
“Goin’ out already?” Kaylee asks, as Kara heads for the cargo bay. “We ain’t even been planetside for ten minutes.”    
  
“Better get out now, could be trouble later,” she calls as she jogs down the stairs, passing Mal, Zoë, and Jayne on her way out. Mal never asks where she goes. Best Captain ever.    
  
Not that she doesn’t love  _Serenity_ —it’s been her home, the crew been her family for almost five years—but whenever they make landfall, she needs to get out. Doesn’t matter where, but her feet hit the dirt and go until she is out of breath.    
  
New Canaan is a shitty little planet. Barely terraformed. Kara has no clue who the hell would have a job for Tightpants out here, but whatever. Means to keep on going. She runs from the docks towards the city watching the sun dip low in the horizon. The streets become more full as people start to head home from work.    
  
She must be crazy, she thinks. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees a figure in a suit that couldn’t possibly be who she thinks it is, but it’s enough to make her lose her footing and stumble to a stop.   
  
_Bastard._   
  
She picks up the pace again, keeps going forward, gets into his path one second before he does and they collide. “ _Qu ni de!_  Watch where you’re going.”   
  
“Watch where  _I’m_  going?” He looks up, catches her gaze. “Kara?”   
  
==========   
  
_”Where’d we go down?” Lee asked.  
  
“Close to the front,” Kara said, checking her sidearm for ammunition. “I figure we’ve got equal chances of being found by Alliance and by friendlies.” Sitting back on her heels, she extended a hand to him. “Can you walk?”   
  
“One way to find out.” Lee braced his hand on the rocks, getting his feet underneath him. Apparently dissatisfied, Kara hooked her arm under his shoulders and hauled them both to their feet, letting him lean against her. “Yes. Apparently, yes.”   
  
“We’re sitting ducks out here. Come on.”   
  
She sounded so confident, so driven. They might have gone down, but they were in no way done. Starbuck was going to get them through this. He didn’t know why he was starting to find the idea hopeless. Still, he held on tight.   
  
The entire valley stunk of death and destruction.   
  
Lee wasn’t sure how far they had gone when he heard footsteps approaching. “What’s that?”  
  
“Not sure.” She pulled them both into a small cave behind the ridge, helping Lee to lean against the wall for support. He watched as she unholstered her weapon, approaching the entrance to the cave. The footsteps paused, close, for just a moment before a woman appeared in the entrance of the cave, her weapon at the ready. Friendly. Both women lowered their guns.   
  
“We were sent to check for survivors from the crash,” the woman whose brown coat sported the bars that ranked her as a corporal explained.  
  
“I’ll save you the trouble,” Kara shot back. “We’re it.”  
  
Corporal Zoë Alleyne led the two of them back to her commanding officer. The Independent troops were holed up in little more than a foxhole, but it was the best cover they could get for now. Sergeant Malcolm Reynolds regarded both pilots with a wary eye. “Lieutenant. Captain.”  
  
Lee knew why Reynolds wasn’t overjoyed. He was in charge of this operation—couldn’t be too thrilled at the sudden appearance of two commissioned officers. “Not going to take over your mission,” Kara said. “You got the lay of this valley better than either of us.”   
  
“Good to hear,” he said. “How are you with ground battle?”  
  
“Best shot in or out of the cockpit,” Kara said.   
  
“That’s all I need to hear.” Mal turned away, but Kara started after him. “Wait. What about him?” she pointed back towards Lee.   
  
“Prop him up. Hand him a gun.”  
  
“He needs medical attention.”   
  
Mal’s face turned grim, but his voice was soft. “Him and about a thousand others. So prop him up, hand him a gun, and pray this battle ends soon.” _   
  
==========   
  
“Lee. Funny running into you,” she says, her lips narrowing into a tight line.    
  
Lee just stares at her for a moment, jaw slack, before he shakes his head. “What are you doing here?”   
  
“Well, I was running.”    
  
“I mean  _here_  on New Canaan.”   
  
He’s too close, she thinks. She shrugs, takes a step back, gestures to the crappy buildings and crappy streets around them. “Taking in the sights.”    
  
Lee folds his arms across his chest. The movement’s crisp, sharp. Military to the core, and it reminds her of the Lee Adama she used to know, even if he is wearing a fancy suit now. Looks damn good on him anyway, Kara thinks, but shuts that down right quick. His jaw clenches for a second, the way it does when he’s about to say something she really doesn’t want to hear.   
  
“Nice threads,” she says, fast to distract him.    
  
“Kara—”   
  
“No, really. Going to a costume party?”   
  
“Kara!”    
  
“What?!”   
  
He lets out a sigh. “This isn’t how I—” Lee stops, shakes his head, his shoulders dropping. “No. Know what? Forget it. Keep running.” He turns, suitcase in hand to go.   
  
“The hell is that supposed to mean?” She really doesn’t mean to step towards him. He can walk away if he damn well pleases. He’s good at that.   
  
“There wasn’t a hidden meaning there.”   
  
“Right…” She stops herself. “That’s rich coming from you.”    
  
He stands straight again, turns back to her, shoulders squared and eyes narrowed. “The war’s over, Kara. I’m not trying to hang on to something I’m never going to have.”    
  
She runs so she doesn’t have to watch him go. She runs so she doesn’t have to think about it. She runs until her legs are aching and her chest is burning, because it was only a minute, maybe two out of her day, seeing an old war budd… superior officer. That’s all it is. Gorram turncoat, at that.    
  
_The war’s over._   
  
She runs. Doesn’t stop until she finds Mal and Zoë and Jayne walking down a side street.    
“Got the job?” she pants, pulling up alongside them.    
  
“Got the job.”   
  
“Good.” A flickering neon sign promising alcohol catches her attention. “Let’s celebrate.”   
  
Jayne grins.    
  
==========   
  
_Lee was in no condition to fight, that much was clear, but listening to the sounds of the battle raging on where he couldn’t see, couldn’t help, was killing him. Torn to shreds, was an apt sitrep for the Independents’ ground position. Then again, the air force hadn’t fared much better. Lee began to wonder when the next round-the last round--of support would be sent in… if they would be sent in. He didn’t dread the feeling of doubt that struck him; in fact, it seemed appropriate.  
  
This war had gone on so long. They had all lost so much. Friends, homes, family… Zak.   
  
Lee’s thoughts were cut off by Kara, dropping down next to him breathing heavily. She sat beside him as she reloaded her gun. She was always out, always in the fight, but she kept coming back. By now, he wasn’t sure what to say. “It’s not looking good, is it?”  
  
Kara gave a shrug of her shoulders, her voice loud over the sound of gunfire and explosions. “Fight ‘em ‘til we can’t. Just like always. Odds don’t matter.” She turned to smirk at him, but he looked away. Her voice dropped, almost like she was talking to herself, but he still hung on every word. “They’ve taken too gorram much…” Trailing off, she put a hand on his leg. “Lee. Look at me. You’re not gonna die. Not here.”  
  
Lee glanced up at her. “Really? And on what do you base this expert medical opinion?”   
  
“Like Reynolds has been saying,” she drawled, “we’re all too pretty to die.”  
  
Lee actually mustered up a laugh, the motion jarring broken ribs, and he doubled up in pain, hacking and coughing. He couldn’t look at Kara, not now. So he closed his eyes and leaned his head back. “Good looks are going to save us all?”   
  
“They’ve gotten us this far haven’t they?”   
  
Lee cracked an eye open to see Kara staring at him with a strange expression on her face. One he’d never caught her looking at him with before, looking perhaps a little lost. Something she couldn’t afford to be right now. If she was distracted, if she was worrying about him… he didn’t want to think about the consequences of sloppy mistakes. He pulled himself up a little bit. “You think I’m good looking, Starbuck?”  
  
The strange expression faded, turning into something a bit more sarcastic. “You’ve seen better days. But they didn’t name you after an old Earth-that-Was god for nothing.”   
  
Somewhere behind them, in the distance, something exploded.  
  
Kara leaned forward and sealed her lips hard over his.   
  
Hell. _ Why this? Why now?  _he thought._ Why after everything? _Maybe because there was nothing left to lose or maybe because everything was about to be lost for good.  
  
Her hands cupped his face, as she deepened the kiss and Lee reached up, pushing through the pain, and threaded his hand through her hair. He didn’t know how long they stayed that way before Sergeant Reynolds’ voice cut in, rough and barking.  
  
“Sorry to interrupt this touching moment, but I need to steal the lieutenant.”_   
  
==========   
  
Kara can’t say she’s particularly surprised that  _yi da tuo da bian_  figured that they’d make more money off turning a bunch of wanted smugglers into the feds than whatever they’d make on this deal. Doesn’t mean she isn’t pissed as hell though. They’ll get out of it. Somehow. Always do.    
  
She’s doing pushups with her feet propped up on a cot when the warden shows up at the bars. “Thrace,” she says. “Your lawyer’s here.”   
  
“Lawyer?” Jayne grunts.   
  
“ _O, zhe zhen shi ge kuaile de jinzhan,_ ” Mal drawls, voice dripping with sarcasm. “Tell me, since when do you have a lawyer?”   
  
She drags her legs off the bed and sits back on her heels. “I don’t have any—”   
  
“This seems familiar.” Kara knows the voice immediately. Can already picture Lee standing there, leaning on the bars and staring at her with that half-amused, half-disapproving look on his face.    
  
“Well,” Mal says, almost amused. “Captain Adama. It’s been a while. Looking a mite bit better than the last time I saw you.”    
  
Lee gives a slight nod, but doesn’t answer him. So Kara rises to her feet, and strolls over to the bars. “What the hell do you think you’re doing here?” she asks in a gritted whisper.    
  
“You still can’t keep yourself out of trouble, can you?”    
  
“We’re doing just fine, Lee.”   
  
He glances over her shoulder, before his eyes lock onto hers. “Yeah,” he says wryly. “I can see that.”    
  
“Look, Adama,you’ve had your laugh, now get out.” She feels heat rising in her face. What right does he have to waltz back into her life like this? Showing off how good he has it. A lawyer now? Kowtowing to the frakking Alliance and holding up their justice and their way of life. Rutting bastard. “There’s nothing that I want from you.”   
  
His face tightens, but his voice is calm when he asks, “Not even this?”, and holds up a key.    
  
Kara feels her jaw go slack. “How did you get that?”   
  
Lee glances over his shoulder. “Knocked out the guard. I also dropped a laxative into the warden’s coffee. She’s going to be in the bathroom for a while.” Lee slides the key into the lock, the tumblers clicking as it opens. “Come on. Did you actually think I was going to let you rot in this cell?”    
  
_Bastard,_  she thinks, sidestepping the unconscious guard on the way out.  _Magnificent bastard._   
  
==========   
  
_Lee knew something was wrong the moment he saw her. Kara’s face was ashy, jaw clenched, eyes dark. “What?”  
  
Kara slowly shook her head. “Air support isn’t coming.”  
  
“What do you mean?”   
  
“We’ve been…” She trailed off, biting her lip before starting again. “They’ve ordered us to surrender.”   
  
It was only then that Lee realized how quiet it had become.   
  
He supposed he should feel the loss. They’d fought so hard, struggled so long, lost so much. He should feel gutted, should feel the grief and rage and betrayal that was etched so deeply into Kara’s face. But he didn’t.   
  
He didn’t feel much of anything.   
  
Lee wasn’t exactly sure how he survived the next week—command had made no effort to rescue the sick and wounded still in the valley, leaving them there to die. He supposed he should feel lucky or grateful that he had made it out, when so many other injured soldiers died there. But he didn’t. Lying in an Alliance hospital, he found himself wishing he had died back in the valley.  
  
He’d been there nearly a week before he had any visitors. Kara appeared at the door to his room looking stiff and uncomfortable, like this was the last place she wanted to be. “What took you so long?” he asked.  
  
“Would you wanna set foot in here?”   
  
It was only when she shifted the duffle on her shoulder that he realized she was carrying it. “Shipping out?”   
  
Kara nodded tersely. “Don’t really see much of a point in hanging around this hellhole anymore.”   
  
“What are you going to do now?”  
  
She shrugged. “Not a damned clue.” She pursed her lips and stepped forward, holding out a piece of paper. He didn’t reach for it, but she shoved it into his hand anyways. “When you get out of here… you’ll know where to find me.”  
  
His heart ached a bit, watching her leave, but somehow it almost felt right to him. He’d flown for years with Kara, fought beside her, bled with her, grieved the same losses together. It felt like he could take on anything so long as she was by his side. But now, he was faced with the stark reality that nothing lasted. He needed to put this war behind him. They’d lost and there was nothing he could do to change it.   
  
It was nearly a year later that Lee surrendered his foolish pride, finding that he was utterly unable to leave everything behind him. Old, crumpled paper in hand, he got a ticket to Boros City.   
  
He may have known where to find her, but he never did._   
  
==========   
  
“…don’t need another gorram stuffed-shirt prissy boy on this ship!” Jayne growls.   
  
“Hey!” Simon snaps.   
  
“He’s stayin’.” Mal doesn’t even look up from the maps he’s going over with Kara.   
  
“Least the doc is good for something. What’s he gonna do, talk—”   
  
“Discussion is ended. He’s stayin’.” If Mal notices that this conversation is making Kara tetchy, he doesn’t say anything about it. “You got the plan?” he asks her. She nods and glances over at Lee who is standing awkwardly under Jayne’s scrutiny.    
  
“Come on,” she says. Relief brightens his face as he follows her up to the bridge.  _Glad to be away from the human-gorilla?_  She wondered.  _Or astounded that a ship in_ Serenity’s _condition could actually still fly?_   
  
“Didn’t expect Reynolds to welcome me onto his ship,” he says, obviously searching for something to say.   
  
She knows the answer is a simple one. It may have been only one battle they fought with Mal, but that was enough. “Tightpants doesn’t leave anyone behind.” Kara sinks down in her chair, gets on the intercom, and lets the crew know they’ll be taking off in fifteen minutes. “Kaylee, how’s the engine room looking?”   
  
_Everything’s shiny down here. We’ll be ready,_ ” Kaylee’s reply crackles over the receiver.    
  
A moment of silence stretches between them before Lee finally speaks. “It’s different. From flying in the war, I mean.”    
  
Kara turns, watching the way Lee stands by the door, his arms folded across himself. In the time since their escape, his tie has come loose, jacket shed, cuffs unbuttoned and sleeves rolled up. She can see scars of burns along one of his arms and remembers that battle too clearly. Unsure how to respond, she just nods.    
  
“So,” Lee lets out a deep breath and takes a few steps towards her. “This is what you’ve been doing since the war?”    
  
“Yeah, I’ve been flying for Mal for the last couple of years.” She wants to avoid the subject of the year she spent in and out of bars. Hell, she was too soaked in liquor those months to really remember them properly anyway. “And you… you’ve been doing the lawyer thing? Defending the laws and morals of the Alliance?” It comes out more bitterly than she means it to. The truth is, Lee was always the one going on about fighting for justice and doing what’s right—but she never thought he’d be fighting for the enemy. Then again, maybe she never knew him that well after all.   
  
“Hardly,” he says, dark and bitter. “Not many firms will take an ex-Independent officer. I’ve been stuck out on this hell hole dealing with land disputes.” Lee walks over to the co-pilot’s chair and sinks down, sighing. There is a mix of emotion on his face that she cannot read. “Anyway, now it’s over.”    
  
“A lawyer on the run from the law,” she says, busying herself with buttons and switches and pre-takeoff prep. Regardless of what low opinions she held of the scum suckers he worked for, the fact remains that Lee’d probably had a good life on New Canaan. And he’d thrown it all away to save her ass. God. “Was it worth it, Lee? Throwing everything out the gorram window to bust a couple of low-lifes out of prison?”    
  
His answer is so damned simple. “I don’t leave anyone behind.”    
  
Kara just stares at him. The swiftness and surety of his words coupled with the intensity of his answering stare makes a little ripple shoot up her spine. This is the man she remembers, her friend, her… Lee.    
  
“You’re  _bu tai zheng chang de._ . You know that right?”   
  
“Yeah, well…” he shrugs. “Guess you’re stuck with me now, huh?” He smiles at her. Actually smiles. And it’s beautiful.    
  
“Guess so.” Then the intercom crackles, breaking the moment, and Kaylee says they’re ready to take off. Kara turns back to Lee and smiles. “Welcome aboard  _Serenity_ , Lee Adama.”   
  
-End-

**Author's Note:**

> Translations (According to http://fireflychinese.kevinsullivansite.net/)
> 
> Lao tian bu - Oh, god, no.  
> Qing wa cao de liumang- frog-humping son of a bitch  
> Qu ni de - screw you  
> yi da tuo da bian - big lump of crap  
> O, zhe zhen shi ge kuaile de jinzhan - Oh this is a happy development  
> bu tai zheng chang de - not entirely sane


End file.
